STEP Tools News for Saturday November 12

[Martin Hardwick]

Since 1991 STEP Tools has been developing tools and databases for
product data. This weekly newsletter is a brief update of what is
going on in STEP and at STEP Tools, Inc.  If you want to know more,
try the STEP Tools web site (http://www.steptools.com).

The author is travelling between meetings so apologies in advance
advance for any inconsistencies. This issue contains news from last
weeks STEP meeting in New Orleans. There are no translation results
in this issue because they are not available until Sunday morning.


-----------------------------------
Super Model Industrial Review Board

The first meeting of the IRB for the Super Model Project will meet
on December 15 and 16. To date, the following large companies have
agreed to participate. There will also be small and medium sized
"supplier" companies at the meeting.

GE Fanuc
Alibre
Boeing
CADKEY
General Dynamics, Tank Automotive
General Motors, Power Train
Lockheed Martin, Tactical Aircraft
CNC Software (MASTERCAM)
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences

Highlights of the first meeting will include an introduction to
the STEP and STEP-NC standards. A party on December 16th (a local
bank is sponsoring the catering), and an opportunity to tour the
manufacturing facilities of RPI.

The meeting is by invitation only so please contact us if you would
like to attend. A new directory has been set up one our web site as
a resource for the Industrial Review Board. At present it contains
a Schedule for the upcoming meeting, a copy of the Executive Summary
from the original proposal and a draft Mission Statement for the
Board.

http://www.steptools.com/irb


-------------------------
"ISO 10000 Certification"

The US Product Data Association has formed a sub-committee to 
investigate a certification process for STEP data. The intent
is to establish a certificate that can be given to organizations
who want to show their customers that they can properly process
3D product model data. 


------------
XML and STEP

Part 28 of STEP is a draft standard that describes XML formats for
STEP data. It includes a late binding format that uses one XML
type for every kind of entity and a series of early binding formats
that create specific XML types for each kind of entity such as
"circle", "product" etc in a STEP model. Multiple early binding
formats are necessary because different users like to use different
styles for their XML models. Our translation service currently
supports the late binding format, and will be updated to include
the early binding formats as they become available.


----------------------------
EXPRESS-X is Part 14 of STEP

EXPRESS-X has been approved as New Work item for STEP and has been
given Part 14 as its part number. EXPRESS-X is mapping language for
selecting and re-organizing EXPRESS defined information. The language
is a key feature of our ST-Repository product. Several other STEP
software vendors are also implementing EXPRESS-X processors.

The first standard version of the language should be sent out
for ballot after the next STEP meeting in Melbourne, Australia.
An editing workshop will be held at STEP Tools in January.


-------------------------------------------
New Web Site for In-Progress STEP Standards

The web site used by the ISO STEP organization to facilitate the
development of new standards is moving. This web site is used to
hold draft versions of documents before they become standards.
The new web site is

http://www.TC184-SC4.org

At the moment the web site is under construction and will forward
you to the previous web site hosted by NIST.


--------------
Upcoming Dates

November 15, 1999 -- Introduction to STEP

A one day hands-on workshop for professionals that need to know what
STEP is and how it can be a key element in solving your product data
exchange problems.

	http://www.steptools.com/training/introstep.html


November 16-18, 1999 -- Programming STEP Applications 

Learn how our most popular programming tool, ST-Developer, can help
you to reduce development time of in-house STEP applications by 75%.
Taught by a STEP Tools developer with over eight years experience.
Dr. David Loffredo will show you how to use and implement the wide
variety of case tools during this intensive hands-on class.
Opportunities will be available to discuss all aspects of how to
program with the ISO 10303 STEP standard and to gain experience with
ST-Developer.

	http://www.steptools.com/training/apstep.html


--------------------
Our Tools

Programming:
* ST-Developer -- programming tools for understanding and writing
  STEP/EXPRESS applications, translators and databases.

* ST-ACIS Library -- programming functions to convert STEP data to 
  and from ACIS models and SAT files.

* ST-Parasolid Library -- programming functions to convert STEP
  data to and from Parasolid models.

* ST-Visualizer Library -- programming functions to visualize STEP
  data.

Desktop:
* ST-ACIS Translator -- desktop tool for translating STEP data to
  ACIS and vice versa.

* ST-Parasolid Translator -- desktop tool for translating STEP data to
  Parasolid and vice versa.

* ST-Viewer -- inexpensive desktop tool to view, analyze and annotate
  STEP data.

Database:
* ST-Repository -- Parts library database for the supply chain with
  services for translating, viewing and editing product data using
  web browsers and desktop applications.


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